Category: Campaign Optimization

Content.ad’s algorithm promotes content based on a combination of the CPC (cost per click) and CTR (clickthrough rate). You can modify your CPC or your content’s headline and image in order to increase the CTR at any time. The more competitive your CPC and CTR, the more volume your campaigns will receive.

If you have a properly placed conversion pixel on your site, Content.ad’s proprietary traffic quality algorithm automatically filters out underperforming traffic sources. Additionally, you can use the block lists feature to exclude certain domains from receiving traffic from specific campaigns in your account.

Determining which domains to block

Sign up for the daily campaign performance report email in the My Account section of your Content.ad account.

Please note that Content.ad does not charge you for any traffic that falls outside of your specified targeting, bot clicks, or duplicate clicks. Because of this, the campaign performance report may not reflect all of the traffic you see in other analytic tools because you are not being charged for it.

Blocking domains

Log into your account at Content.ad and click on Block Lists under Advertising in the main navigation.

Create or select a block list and ensure that it is applied to the desired campaign(s). Block lists can be assigned to multiple campaigns, but each campaign can only use one block list.

Enter the domain ID(s) that you would like to block. Limit 175 per week (based on a rolling 7 day total).

Note: Manually blocking domains may limit your ability to scale your campaigns. If you would like assistance determining which domains should be given a second chance, please contact support or your account rep to request a review.

Campaigns are unique and each may require a different length of time in the system for our algorithm to learn from your campaigns and to gather enough data to measure success. We suggest campaigns to remain active in the system for 2 to 4 weeks during testing.

Content.ad tests all campaign content and our algorithm will continue to serve the top performing content, resulting in some content getting more traffic than others. If you are looking to get more traffic to other content, we suggest creating new content and continue to test until you find new top performing content. See our suggestions for creating high performing content.

Content.ad’s algorithm will optimize campaigns based on CTR performance, but keep in mind that each campaign’s performance will differ based on publishers and placements, as well as country and device targeting, resulting in different CTR’s and levels of volume.

There may be a few reasons why your campaign is not receiving traffic. First, be sure the campaign is currently set active and funds are available in the account. If this is the case and you are still not receiving traffic, your campaign is currently underperforming in the network to warrant receiving traffic. We suggest you increase your CPC until you begin to receive traffic and then work to improve the CTR for the content to improve the campaign’s overall performance.

A/B testing is great way to develop new top performing content. We suggest testing no more than 2-4 variations and to ensure that headlines and images are unique to each other rather than test near identical ones to avoid wasting funds during testing. Remember, the goal is to discover top performers, not make modest improvements which deliver minimal results.

Yes, you can track conversions in Content.ad. To request a conversion pixel, please contact support@content.ad. If you have been assigned an account manager, please contact them directly for assistance. Please note that a conversion pixel is unique to each account. If you have multiple accounts, please let us know which account you are requesting a pixel for.

Content.ad is a performance-based network and our algorithms promote content based on eCPM, which is a combination of the CPC (cost per click) and CTR (click through rate). The more competitive your CPC and CTR, the more volume your campaigns will receive.

CPC Adjustments

Increasing your CPC is the single most important factor to boost traffic volume for your campaign. To increase your traffic volume, adjust your CPC with a significant increase, rather than an incremental increase. Due to network competition, significant CPC increases produce quicker results and more data, which increases the efficiency in optimizing campaigns.

We suggest increasing your CPC by $0.05 or more to give your campaigns the best opportunity to increase traffic volume. Consider increasing the CPC until you see a change in traffic volume and continue to make adjustments as needed.

When adjusting CPCs, allow up to 24 hours for the algorithms to test the change throughout the network for best results. Reducing the CPC within 24 hours after an increase will negatively impact the ability to increase traffic volume.

CTR Improvements

The best practice to improve the CTR is to test unique headlines and images for each creative. Avoid only testing the same headlines with a few image variations, or vice versa. Also, avoid testing too many creatives at one time. Ideally, you should test no more than 3 to 5 creatives at a given time for best results.

Other Factors to Consider

Keep in mind that a number of factors may impact the volume your campaigns receive, including:

Your Daily and Total Budgets

Consider a larger Daily and Total Budget to give campaigns the opportunity to scale when adjusting campaign settings.

Geo and Device Targeting

Avoid testing only one Geo or Device if your campaigns accept traffic in other Geo’s and for other Device types.

Limiting Geo and Device targeting to fewer than two countries or devices may negatively impact your traffic volume in the network due to the performance variances between Geo’s and Devices. (The exception is if the campaign is only approved to run in a single geo and on a particular device type.)

Network Competition

The network changes dynamically as advertisers adjust campaign settings, so if the adjustments don’t result in an increase in traffic volume, then the changes did not improve campaign performance metrics enough to warrant the increase in traffic.

Consider increasing the CPC and creating new ad variations until you see an increase in traffic volume.

If you are a publisher driving traffic for audience development/engagement you should think about the following best practices to drive scale for your non-commercial campaigns. Non-commercial content is typically of general interest and does not contain links to products, links to an advertiser landing page, or paid promotion of any kind. While the content itself can’t be commercial, other sources of revenue may appear outside the main content, ie. advertising in header, footer or right/left rails.

How our Algorithms Work

Content.ad is a performance-based network. Our algorithms favor content based on eCPM, which is a combination of the CPC (cost per click) and CTR (click through rate) of your ad. The more competitive your CPC and CTR, the more volume your campaigns will receive.

CPC Adjustments

Increasing your CPC is the single most important factor to boost traffic volume for your campaign. To increase your traffic volume, adjust your CPC with a significant increase, (ie: 25%+). Due to network competition, significant CPC increases produce quicker results and more data, which allows faster optimization of your campaigns.

We suggest increasing your CPC by a few cents or more to give your campaigns the best opportunity to increase traffic volume. Consider increasing the CPC until you see a change in traffic volume and continue making adjustments as needed to deliver volume based on your daily or total budget.

When adjusting CPCs, allow up to 24 hours for the algorithms to test the change throughout the network for best results. Reducing or setting the CPC back to the previous rate within 24 hours after an increase will reduce the ability to increase traffic volume.

CTR Improvements

The best way to improve CTR is to test unique headlines and images for each ad. Avoid only testing the same headlines with a few image variations, or vice versa. Also, avoid testing too many creatives at one time. Ideally, you should test no more than 3 to 5 creatives at a given time for best results. Be sure to add new ad variations daily or weekly to improve the ability to scale.

Top Performing CTR’s:

1.0% CTR +

High-end

0.50% CTR +

Mid-range

0.25% CTR +

Low-end

0.15% CTR +

Low, Low-end

*CTR is only one factor that determines your ad’s eCPM metric. CPC is the other component as stated earlier. So effectively, you may be able to deliver the same eCPM by increasing both your CTR and CPC.

Top Performing CPC’s by Device and Geo:

To gauge your ad’s growth potential, use these benchmark CPC’s* by Device and Geo:

US

INT’L

Desktop

$0.05 – 0.11+

$0.05 – 0.075+

Tablet

$0.035 – 0.07+

$0.020 – 0.07+

Mobile

$0.025 – 0.055+

$0.0150 – 0.055+

*CPC is only one factor that determines your ad’s eCPM. CTR is the other component as stated earlier. So effectively, you may be able to deliver the same eCPM by increasing both your CPC and CTR.

Geo-targeting:

Marketing outside the U.S. can be a key driver to scale your campaigns.

Top markets to test:

United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand

Additional markets to consider:

France, Germany, Turkey, South Africa, India

Rest of the world:

All other INTL markets are included in this GEO

Devices:

Marketing to all device types is another great way to scale your campaigns.

Mobile:

#1 Volume opportunity

Fastest growth rate

Least saturated

Tablet:

Mirrors mobile in terms of opportunity

Performs similar to Desktop

High CTR’s

Desktop:

Largest % of Impressions

Most Saturated

Top Performing Ads:

Compelling ads that delivers top performing CTR’s is the biggest factor to drive engagement and page views. Consider the following examples of top performing ad categories when creating your campaigns.

Celebrity, Entertainment, Lifestyle

Sensational, Outrageous, Shocking

Disturbing, Horrifying

Controversial, Polarizing

Unexpected, Timely, Captured Moments

Embarrassing, Funny, Hysterical

Sexy or Sexual in Nature

Ratings:

As an advertiser, you can view the content rating for your approved ads. Your content rating can be found under Campaigns>Manage Ads. The content rating will indicate either a G, PG, PG-13 or R rating. The aggressive imagery rating will indicate either a High, Low or None rating. Please note that our Compliance and Content teams review the image, headline and landing page to determine the overall content rating.

NOTE: To maximize volume, be sure to create ads that receive content ratings across all the rating categories. Ads that receive higher ratings may get higher CTRs while ads with lower ratings are able to serve in many more placements and are eligible for more impressions.

To learn more about our content ratings and guidlines, please review information below.

Guidelines to Follow:

Content Rating

G: Absolutely no suggestive content of any kind, including images of people showing any amount of skin.

Examples of G Content

PG: No sex-related or sensual content. Tasteful imagery associated with topics such as swimwear and fitness may include skin.

Examples of PG Content

PG-13: Content includes sexual topics or non-explicit suggestive imagery. Includes terms and images that may be considered “sexy”.

Examples of PG-13 Content

R: All of our sponsored content can be shown here. Content may be sexual in nature. Ad content does NOT contain nudity, pornography or explicit sex. (Note: This option may not be compliant with Google AdSense or other ad network policies.)

Examples of R Content

Aggressive Imagery Rating

None: Content does not include aggressive imagery or text.

Examples of No Aggressive Imagery

Low: Content includes imagery that may be considered mildly aggressive.

Examples of Low Aggressive Imagery

High: Content includes imagery that may be considered highly aggressive.

Examples of Highly Aggressive Imagery

Image Dimensions

Some publisher placements utilize higher resolution images to maximize performance. In order to make your content available to our entire network, simply provide an image with the recommended dimensions.

Recommended dimensions: 300×250 pixels

Minimum dimensions: 150×150 pixels

Pausing & Activating Campaigns

The length of time a campaign remains “Paused” can limit it’s ability to scale once its set back to “Active” as network performance is dynamic and changes daily. If you notice your campaign is not performing at or near the same rate prior to setting it “Paused”, you should increase your CPC and CTR to improve the campaign performance metrics until you see an increase in traffic volume.

Things to Avoid

Daily and Total Budgets

Limiting Daily and Total Budgets when attempting to scale campaigns

Suggestion: Consider using Open Budgets

Geo and Device Targeting

Testing only one Geo if your campaigns accept traffic in other Geo’s.

Testing only one Device if your campaigns accept traffic for other Devices.

Limiting Geo and Device targeting to fewer than two countries or Devices may negatively impact your traffic volume in the network due to the performance variances between Geo’s and Devices. (The exception is if the campaign is only approved to run in a single geo and on a particular Device type.)

CTR

Not adding new content based on the assumption your current ads are still working

Suggestion: Be sure to add 3-5 new pieces of content every 24-48 hours to improve CTR

Don’t rely on just CTR changes to improve CPM performance metrics

CPC

Don’t make modest CPC changes to increase volume, be aggressive to see results

Don’t rely on just CPC changes to improve CPM performance metrics

Network Competition

Performance can change at any time. The network changes dynamically as advertisers adjust campaign settings. If your adjustments don’t drive up volume, then campaign performance metrics did not improve enough to drive increased traffic. Consider increasing the CPC even more and creating new ad variations until you see an increase in traffic volume.

The Bid by Domain feature allows advertisers to make CPC bid rate adjustments at the Domain ID level by Device, for each Campaign. The feature helps advertisers efficiently and conveniently scale campaigns based on the relative ROI performance of various publisher sources.

NOTE: Using the Bid by Domain feature and limiting the number of blocked Domain ID’s, will greatly increase your opportunity to grow volume and scale your campaigns.

To access Bid by Domain, go to the Campaigns and click on the dropdown icon located to the left of the Campaign name. Select Bid By Domain.

NOTE: To use this feature for additional campaigns, you will need to revisit this section to make CPC adjustments.

Select a device and click the Filter button. Results can be exported to Excel by clicking the Excel icon on the bottom right of the page. You may also search for a specific domain ID by using the domain ID field. To make CPC adjustments, enter the desired bid amount in the CPC field for each domain. The bid will be saved automatically. You can set domain-specific bids on up to 150 domains per device on each campaign. To remove a domain bid simply delete the CPC value for that domain. You can do this to free up available bids for different domains.

If you are an advertiser/marketer driving traffic to drive conversions/purchase for products or services, you should think about the following best practices to drive scale for your advertorial campaigns.

Advertorial campaigns can be either article or video based sponsored content which promote a particular product or service and may include information and pricing about a specific offer. The content includes links directed to a landing page to purchase a product or service. The landing page may not include any type of order form, payment page or email signup functionality.

Content must be clearly labeled as ‘Advertorial, ‘Sponsored’ or ‘Advertisement’ either in the header section or above the headline of the article content on the landing page. Disclosures in only the footer section of the landing page is not allowed as often this copy falls below the fold of the page.

For ‘free trial’ or continuity/auto-ship offers, a link to the product’s terms & conditions must be visible and active to allow a consumer to click and review prior to submitting payment.

How our Algorithms Work

Content.ad is a performance-based network. Our algorithms favor content based on eCPM, which is a combination of the CPC (cost per click) and CTR (click through rate) of your ad. The more competitive your CPC and CTR, the more volume your campaigns will receive.

CPC Adjustments

Increasing your CPC is the single most important factor to boost traffic volume for your campaign. To increase your traffic volume, adjust your CPC with a significant increase, (ie: 25%+). Due to network competition, significant CPC increases produce quicker results and more data, which allows faster optimization of your campaigns.

We suggest increasing your CPC by a few cents or more to give your campaigns the best opportunity to increase traffic volume. Consider increasing the CPC until you see a change in traffic volume and continue making adjustments as needed to deliver volume based on your daily or total budget.

When adjusting CPCs, allow up to 24 hours for the algorithms to test the change throughout the network for best results. Reducing or setting the CPC back to the previous rate within 24 hours after an increase will reduce the ability to increase traffic volume.

CTR Improvements

The best way to improve CTR is to test unique headlines and images for each ad. Avoid only testing the same headlines with a few image variations, or vice versa. Also, avoid testing too many creatives at one time. Ideally, you should test no more than 3 to 5 creatives at a given time for best results. Be sure to add new ad variations daily or weekly to improve the ability to scale.

Top Performing CTR’s:

0.20% + CTR

High-end

0.15 – 0.19% CTR +

Upper-range

0.08 – .14% CTR +

Mid-range

0.01% – 0.07% CTR

Low-end

*CTR is only one factor that determines your ad’s eCPM metric. CPC is the other component as stated earlier. So effectively, you may be able to deliver the same eCPM by increasing both your CTR and CPC.

Top Performing CPC’s by Device and Geo:

To gauge your ad’s growth potential, use these benchmark CPC’s* by Device and Geo:

US

INT’L

Desktop

$0.45 – 0.70+

$0.35 – 0.070+

Tablet

$0.25 – 0.60+

$0.25 – 0.60+

Mobile

$0.18 – 0.80+

$0.10 – 0.70+

*CPC is only one factor that determines your ad’s eCPM. CTR is the other component as stated earlier. So effectively, you may be able to deliver the same eCPM by increasing both your CPC and CTR.

Geo-targeting:

Marketing outside the U.S. can be a key driver to scale your campaigns.

Top markets to test:

United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand

Additional markets to consider:

France, Germany, Turkey, South Africa, India

Rest of the world:

All other INTL markets are included in this GEO

Devices:

Marketing to all device types is another great way to scale your campaigns.

Mobile:

#1 Volume opportunity

Fastest growth rate

Least saturated

Tablet:

Mirrors mobile in terms of opportunity

Performs similar to Desktop

High CTR’s

Desktop:

Largest % of Impressions

Most Saturated

Top Performing Ad Categories:

Compelling ads that delivers top performing CTR’s is the biggest factor to drive engagement and page views. Consider the following examples of top performing ad categories when creating your campaigns.

Advertising & Marketing

Arts & Entertainment

Automotive

Careers

Family & Parenting

Fitness

Government & Politics

Health & Beauty

Hobbies & Interests

Lifestyle & Entertainment

Personal Finance

Pets

Relationships

Science & Medicine

Shopping

Sports

Style & Fashion

Technology

Travel

Content Ratings:

As an advertiser, you can now view the content rating for your approved ads. Your content rating can be found under My Campaigns>Approved. The content rating is located below the headline and URL and will indicate either a G, PG, PG-13 or R rating. Please note that our Compliance and Content teams review the image, headline and landing page to determine the overall content rating.

NOTE: To maximize volume, be sure to create ads that receive content ratings across all the rating categories. Ads rated R typically get much less traffic than ads rated as G.

To learn more about our content ratings and guidelines, please review information below.

Guidelines to Follow:

G: Absolutely no suggestive content of any kind, including images of people showing any amount of skin. No mature topics or depictions of violence.

Examples of G Content

PG: No sex-related or sensual content. Tasteful imagery associated with topics such as swimwear, body art, and fitness may include skin. Select entertainment images and topics may include mild violence.

Examples of PG Content

PG-13: Content includes sexual topics or non-explicit suggestive imagery, as well as violence in news or entertainment media. Includes terms and images that may be considered “sexy”.

Examples of PG-13 Content

R: All of our sponsored content can be shown here. Content may be sexual in nature, sensational, shocking or outrageous. Creative content does NOT contain nudity, pornography or explicit sex.

Examples of R Content

Image Dimensions

Some publisher placements utilize higher resolution images to maximize performance. In order to make your content available to our entire network, simply provide an image with the recommended dimensions.

Recommended dimensions: 300×250 pixels

Minimum dimensions: 150×150 pixels

Pausing & Activating Campaigns

The length of time a campaign remains “Paused” can limit its ability to scale once it’s set back to “Active” as network performance is dynamic and changes daily. If you notice your campaign is not performing at or near the same rate prior to setting it “Paused”, you should increase your CPC and CTR to improve the campaign performance metrics until you see an increase in traffic volume.

Things to Avoid

Daily and Total Budgets

Limiting Daily and Total Budgets when attempting to scale campaigns

Suggestion: Consider using Open Budgets

Geo and Device Targeting

Testing only one Geo if your campaigns accept traffic in other Geo’s.

Testing only one Device if your campaigns accept traffic for other Devices.

Limiting Geo and Device targeting to fewer than two countries or Devices may negatively impact your traffic volume in the network due to the performance variances between Geo’s and Devices. (The exception is if the campaign is only approved to run in a single geo and on a particular Device type.)

CTR

Not adding new content based on the assumption your current ads are still working

Suggestion: Be sure to add 3-5 new pieces of content every 24-48 hours to improve CTR

Don’t rely on just CTR changes to improve CPM performance metrics

CPC

Don’t make modest CPC changes to increase volume, be aggressive to see results

Don’t rely on just CPC changes to improve CPM performance metrics

Network Competition

Performance can change at any time. The network changes dynamically as advertisers adjust campaign settings. If your adjustments don’t drive up volume, then campaign performance metrics did not improve enough to drive increased traffic. Consider increasing the CPC even more and creating new ad variations until you see an increase in traffic volume.

Please note that this advanced feature may impact your traffic potential if you do not maintain the White List and keep your RON (run-of-network) campaigns running simultaneously.

The White List feature allows you to create separate campaigns targeting domain ID(s) that perform the best for you.

Best Practice: Continue to run RON (run-of network) campaigns in conjunction with White List campaigns. This will enable you to identify top performing domain ID(s) that you can continually add to your White List campaigns.

Best Practices for Running White List Campaigns

New domains are added regularly to the Content.ad network and will appear in your RON campaigns. Monitor your RON (run-of-network) campaigns closely to identify new high performing domain IDs that can be added to White List campaigns.

It’s important to keep ads live in both RON (run-of-network) and White List campaigns to maintain current volume until White List campaigns are approved and begin to get impressions.

Increase CPCs for White List Campaigns to remain competitive in the network as other advertisers may also be using the White List feature and targeting the same domain ID(s).

Do not significantly lower CPCs in RON (run-of-network) campaigns or block too many domain ID(s) at once. RON (run-of-network) campaigns need to maintain volume to gather performance information on new domains.

How to Best Set Up Campaigns and Monitor White List Campaign Performance?

Add the conversion tracking pixel to your site. (The conversion tracking pixel is used for Advertorial or Advertisements ONLY. Please contact your account representative or support@content.ad to request the pixel.)